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Today in DCC Workstation
3D
Graphics Cards for DCC
Intro,
Why Accelerate?, What
to Look For, PCI vs. AGP
Entry-Level,
Low-Cost, High-Speed 3D Acceleration: Sub $300 Cards
Mid-Range,
High-Speed 3D Acceleration: Sub $1000 Cards
High-End, Maximum
3D Acceleration: Cards Over $1,000
HP
VISUALIZE-fx2+, -fx4+, and -fx6+, Intense3D
Wildcat 4000, Intense3D Wildcat
4105, Intense3D Wildcat 4110,
3Dlabs Oxygen GVX210, 3Dlabs
Oxygen GMX2000, ELSA GLoria
XXL, Evans & Sutherland Tornado
3000
HP VISUALIZE-fx2+,
-fx4+ and -fx6+
 The
HP VISUALIZE fx+ family of products take full advantage of the latest
technology to accelerate applications that use the OpenGL graphics API.
This is a second-generation product family, designed specifically to take
advantage of the latest in processor and system design technology. Although
the fx+ series was primarily designed for OpenGL features and performance,
2D performance and features are important in the design. The fx+ series
also has hardware support for Microsoft's DirectDraw interface, which
is useful for accelerating viewing video clips for computer based training
or as part of web browsing.
The heart of the geometry engine is based on customized silicon, using
floating point technology leveraged from HP's PA-RISC, long a leader in
floating point performance. If an application certifies the fx6+ graphics,
it is guaranteed to work with the fx4+ and fx2+. The family is supported
by the same set of drivers. The driver detects the configuration at initialization,
and the difference between the fx4+ and fx2+ is handled by literally 1
line of code in the driver. The task of dividing up the work between the
"downstream" chips is a hardware function of the Host Interface chip.
Although a similar naming convention is used, the VISUALIZE graphics products
for the Windows NT environment are different implementations than for
the Unix Workstation systems. The underlying architecture is the same.
In particular, the Host Interface chip and the Rasterization chips are
different in the Personal Workstation systems than in the Unix Workstation
systems. In addition, the Windows products include VGA graphics for Windows
compatibility when booting and for full-screen DOS mode.
HP has built each graphics subsystem for compatibility and ease of certification
by supporting the same features across the entire product line, whether
it be the VISUALIZE-fx2+, fx4+ or the fx6+.
Key 3D Features: AGP2X (133MHz) support, AGP DMA (Direct Memory Access)
support, OpenGL 1.1 compliance, hardware acceleration of key OpenGL extensions,
most OpenGL 1.2 features supported as extensions, 18MB SGRAM frame buffer
memory (24-bit true color, double buffered; 24-bit Z-Buffer; 8-bit overlay
planes; 4-bit stencil and 5-bit Windows ID), optional texture acceleration
and dedicated texture memory, and a full set of OpenGL features accelerated
in hardware. These features include the Hardware Accumulation Buffer (requires
driver version 1.12 or later) for advanced features: full-scene anti-aliasing,
motion blur, multi-pass rendering algorithms.
OtherOpenGL features include: anti-aliasing for vectors and points, Gouraud
shading (smooth shading), alpha blending for transparency, and fog/depth
cueing. The optional hardware texture acceleration depends on dedicated
texture acceleration processors, and dedicated texture SDRAM memory for
point-sampled, bilinear, and trilinear MIP mapping, 3D texture mapping,
and shadow texture mapping.
HP also provides color recovery technology for double buffering at 1600x1200
resolution. There is also hardware acceleration of occlusion culling,
and stereo vision support with refresh rates up to 120Hz (effectively,
60Hz each for the left and right eye).
The VISUALIZE Graphics Architecture HP's VISUALIZE graphics accelerators
are designed with a scalable architecture which creates a compatible family
of products from the same building blocks:
| |
fx6+ |
fx4+ |
fx2+ |
| Geometry
Pipelines |
6 |
4 |
2 |
| Host
Interface Chip |
1 |
1 |
1 |
| Rasterization
Chips |
2 |
2 |
2 |
| RAMDAC
Chip |
1 |
1 |
1 |
| Frame
Buffer Memory |
18MB |
18MB |
18MB |
| Texture
Accelerator Chip(s) (Optional) |
2 |
1 |
1 |
| Texture
Memory (Optional) |
32MB |
16MB |
16MB |
Note:
There are 2 geometry pipelines per geometry chip, for example, the VISUALIZE-fx6+
has 3 geometry chips, or 6 geometry pipelines.
The price for
the VISUALIZE graphics accelerators ranges from $1200 for the fx2+ without
texture map accelerator, up to $4,200 for the fx6+ with texture map accelerator.
Lead
on to the Intense3D Wildcat 4000
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